Читать книгу American Democracy in Context - Joseph A. Pika - Страница 147

In addition to the specific guarantees of the Bill of Rights, such as freedom of speech, the Supreme Court has recognized one of the most controversial constitutional rights: the unenumerated right of privacy. This recognition has raised a whole host of questions. What is the basis for this right? After all, the word privacy never appears anywhere in the Constitution. Is it permissible for the Court to “discover” new rights and use them to strike down laws? Or do such discoveries amount to the Court impermissibly legislating from the bench? The right of privacy is especially contentious because it often involves highly controversial practices such as birth control, abortion, and consensual sex among adults as well as the right to die.

Unlike the U.S. Constitution’s unenumerated right of privacy, the European Convention on Human Rights contains a specifically enumerated right of privacy, with Article 8, Section 1 stating, “Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.” Section 2, though, allows governments to restrict this right of privacy when that restriction is “in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.”